PISCATAWAY — Less than a month until Rutgers officially enters the Big Ten, Athletic Director Julie Hermann is making her rounds.

Two more stops on Rutgers’ “R Big Tour” await. She will speak July 1 at High Point Solutions Stadium as part of a kickoff event for the school’s new conference. Meetings with league officials, colleagues and Big Ten Commissioner Jim Delany precede it.

In a seven-minute interview Thursday, Hermann spanned the Big Ten’s impact on her strategic plan, how Louisville’s relationship with ESPN is a barometer for Rutgers and her soft spot for joining the same conference as Nebraska, her alma mater.

“For me, it was huge,” Hermann said of Rutgers’ Big Ten affiliation. “I’d been contacted for many jobs over the years, because I was working for the best athletic director in the country (Tom Jurich). Of course you get those phone calls. This was the first time that I was actually interested in competing for the opportunity. To me, the combination of Rutgers in the Big Ten, that’s game-changing. That, to me, gives Rutgers the opportunity to be the next great national collegiate sports story.”

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More from Hermann’s one-on-one interview will run in a story published on Rutgers’ Big Ten entry later in June.